Patty Cafferata: Dry winters occurred in the past

10:22 PM,
Mar. 10, 2014

Patty Cafferata

Written by

Patty Cafferata

The state of Nevada is no stranger to droughts, but they are ordinarily a local, not a statewide phenomenon. Although the state is dry, lack of moisture is not ordinarily a catastrophe, unless a few unusually dry winters occur in a row. According to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, droughts occur every 10 years on the average with major droughts about every 20 years.

Webster's Dictionary defines drought as "a long spell of dry weather." The factors experts consider in determining a drought include the amount of precipitation, snowpack, soil moisture, streamflow, surface water ...